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74th Year No. 77 Good Morning! It's Sunday, December 13, 1981 5 Sections 56 Pages 50 Cents
WARSAW, Poland ( UPI) - Steel- helmet- ed
riot police carrying shields
moved in on the Solidarity Union's
Warsaw headquarters in a midnight
raid Saturday, took over the building
and arrested union officials there
and at their homes.
There were no immediate reports
of injuries, or whether Solidarity
leader Lech Walesa who was be-lieved
to be at a meeting of the union
leadership in Gdansk had been ar-rested.
The raid came within hours of the
union's call for a national day of pro-test
Thursday in the face of Soviet
warnings that the 10- milli- on member
union was " preparing for direct sei-zure
of power." Telephone commu-nications
between Warsaw, the rest
of Poland and the outside world were
cut about 4 pjn. CST Saturday. UPI
communications were transmitted
early today through the French news
agency Agence France- Press- e office
in Vienna.
Witnesses said 11 police vans car-rying
riot police blocked off
Mokotowska Street, where Solidarity
is located, about 5 p. m. CST, and po-lice
poured into the building from a
van that drove up to the door.
Officers with riot shields escorted
people from the building and drove
them away. One of those taken was
Krzystyof Sliwinski, head of Warsaw
Solidarity's Foreign department.
A woman watching the police
round- u- p said her son, union activist
Dariusz Kupiecki, had been arrested
at his home.
" I came to find out what hap- -
pened," she said, spitting on the
ground at the foot of a policeman.
The State Department in Washington
had no official comment on the raid
or subsequent arrests.
During a fiery debate between
moderates and radicals in the Soli-darity
leadership, one Solidarity of f '--
cial
said, " Whether we want to
not, we have to take power.
" We should do it quickly because
both for the party and for us, time
has become a political factor," said
Antoni Kopaszewski, a Solidarity of-ficial
from Rzeszow.
The government crackdown came
after the Solidarity union proclaimed
Thursday " a day of protest against
oppression and a symbol of social
unity" in a brief resolution adopted
by the union's 107- memb- er ruling
committee.
Communist officials vowed at the
same time that police would use
force to break up any demonstra-tions.
Hours later, communications
with outside countries were cut off
and the riot squads moved in on War-saw's
Solidarity headquarters.
Solidarity's national leadership,
meeting for the second day, also
passed a resolution threatening a
general strike if parliament ap-proves
a series of tough emergency
rule laws demanded by the Commu-nist
Party.
In Warsaw, Mayor Jerzy
Majewski demanded that Solidarity
call off planned mass demonstra-tions
set for Thursday and hinted the
government might use force to pre-vent
them.
Majewski said the street rallies
planned in Warsaw and other cities
would be like " putting a fuse to a
barrel of gunpowder" and warned
that " law enforcement organs will
oppose with determination any ac-tions
aimed against peoples' power."
In Moscow, the' Soviet news agen-cy
Tass said Solidarity was " prepar-ing
for direct seizure of power" and
a general strike aimed at paralyzing
the country and " overthrowing the
socialist system."
Despite a deep split between mod-erate
and militant factions in the
union's national commission, its
leadership did agree Saturday on the
centerpiece of the resolutions being
debated at the three- da- y meeting
a seven- poi- nt declaration of strateg-y-
The resolution included demands
for free elections, access to the mass
media, an end to reprisals against
the union, economic reforms, great-er
union control of the economy, a
new trade union law and the creation
of a council to oversee economic
matters.
It also included provisions for a 24- ho- ur
strike if parliament grants
emergency powers to the govern-ment
and an indefinite general strike
if such powers are used.
Another resolution debated by the
member union commission would
virtually reject the present regime.
" The public cannot tolerate au-thorities
which cannot guarantee the
basic needs of the people," the reso-lution
said.
IVAnn Lawrence
Saturday was overcast and chilly but not cold enough to keep
these horses inside their barn. Oblivious to the stark beauty of
their surroundings, they nibbled at dry late autumn grass in a
field at the corner of Green Meadows and Bethel Roads.
Suspect in three rapes defended
ByJeffTraesdell
Missourian staff writer
Neighbors of a man arrested and
charged Friday with three rapes
spent Saturday morning asking
themselves how police could have
compiled evidence condemning their
friend.
" We're shocked. He's about as
guilty as the Rev. Billy Graham,"
. said Larry McDaniel of Jim Aberna- th- y,
24, who was arrested and
charged with three rapes in the city
in the past four months. McDaniel
and his wife, Mary Kay, are Aberna- thy'- s
neighbors in the Columns IV
Mobile Home Community, U. S. 63
South, on the city's southeast side.
" I we're not over there, he's over
here, day in, day out, every day of
the year," McDaniel said. " There's
no way they can tell me I don't know
the guy.
" Here's what everybody's think-ing;
if the crooks don't get you, the
cops wilL If it can happen to Jim
Abernathy, it can happen to any-body."
Boone County Prosecutor Joe
Moseley Friday charged Abernathy
with the rapes and three counts each
of sodomy and burglary. If convicted
on the rape charges, Abernathy
could face three life terms in prison.
He was being held in Boone County
Jail in lieu of $ 600,000 bond following
arraignment Friday.
Abemathy's neighbors are con-fused
and angry over the fate of their
friend, a former instructor at Rock
Bridge and Hallsville high schools, a
University graduate student and the
former chairman of the mobile home
community's tenants association.
Friends who live near Abernathy
on the trailer park's South Drury
Drive refused to accept the idea that
Columbia police had built a case
against him.
" This block of people is like fami-ly,"
said Mary Kay McDaniel. " No-body
believes it."
Abemathy's neighbors, who plan
to help cover his legal expenses, ve-hemently
deny his guilt. Many, how-ever,
believe it's too late to correct
the damage already wrought by the
announcement of Abemathy's ar-rest.
" There's no way it can be this
man," says Ralph King, a real estate
agent and former superintendent of
the Hallsville school district, who
has been Abemathy's next door
neighbor for four years.
King, who earlier recommended
Abernathy to Hallsville school ad-ministrators,
said: " Somebody's
made a gross error. I certainly hope
that the police will continue their in-vestigation
because they have the
wrong person."
Residents have pieced together
( See FRIENDS, Page 7A)
Libya to replace
U. S technicians
leaving oilfields
From our wire services
Libyan Oil Minister Abdul Salaam
Zagaar said Saturday that Libya
may be forced to shut down its oil-fields
if the 1,500 Americans there
heed President Reagan's " unfair"
call for them to return home.
Speaking after a meeting of the Or-ganization
of Petroleum Exporting
Countries, which ended Friday in
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates,
Zagaar said Libya wanted the Amer-icans
in Iibya to remain but would
not stop them from leaving.
If the American tecnhicians run-ning
Libya's oilfields do leave, Za-gaar
said, then Libya will be forced
to seek qualified replacements
" from anywhere" it can get them.
" We are not compelling anyone to
leave," Zagaar said. " But if they
leave, then we will take the nec-essary
measures to protect our legit-imate
interests."
Meanwhile, analysts say that
OPEC's decision to lower its crude
oil prices indicated the cartel is con-fident
the confrontation between the
United States and Libya will not dis-rupt
world oil markets.
OPEC oil ministers turned down a
Libyan request for economic repri-sals
against the United States follow-ing
President Reagan's appeal to
Americans to leave Libya.
The cartel agreed to trim some of
its crude by between 20 and 70 cents
a barrel as of Jan. 1 the second se-ries
of official price reductions in
two months.
" OPEC's actions would seem to
imply that the U. S.- Liby- an facedown
isn't affecting OPEC pricing deliber-ations,"
said Al Silber, international
oil analyst at Dean Witter Reynolds
Inc.
" There is no feeling of scarcity or
pricing changes that we might ex-pect
if the Libyans were about to
stop producing or other OPEC mem-bers
were prepared to embargo the
United States in support of Libya,"
he said.
West European nations have op-posed
President Reagan's policy of
confrontation with Libya on grounds
that it could push Col. Moammar
Khadafy's regime into the Soviet
camp. Oil minister Zagaar's refer--
Libyan strongman Col.
Moammar Khadafy plans to
hold a news conference in Tri-poli
today, presumably to re-spond
to Reagan's call for
Americans to leave Libya and
to charges that Libya has sent
" hit squads" to kill Reagan
and other American officials. I
ence to going ' anywhere" to seek
technical help if the Americans
leave appeared to hint at this.
Zagaar said the loss of U. S. oil per- sonnelwo- uld
create severe problems
for Libya."'
"( The American oil companies)
are fully responsible for the damage
that will occur to the oilfields,', he
said.
Analysts, however, say that a deci-sion
by Libya to shut down its oil-fields
would not be catastrophic. But
the loss of Libyan production would
remove about 800,000 barrels a day
from the world market and nearly
erase the current surplus, setting the
stage for possible OPEC price in-creases,
the analysts said.
Industry observers emphasized,
however, that Reagan's directive
was aimed at pulling American citi-zens
out of Libya and did not call for
ending U. S. purchases of Libyan oil
or closing U. S. oil operations in the
radical Arab nation.
The withdrawal of U. S. oil person-nel
could temporarily reduce Libya's
oil output, they said, but U. S. oil
firms that have production- sharin- g
agreements with the Tripoli govern-ment
have indicated non- Americ- an
employees can man their Libyan op-erations.
Although Occidental Petroleum
Co., Marathon Oil Co., Conoco Inc.
and Amerada Hess Co. are prepar-ing
to send home U. S. personnel, the
companies have no plans to close
their Libyan oil operations.
" Libya's oil production has fallen
so sharply from 1.7 million barrels a
day at the beginning of this year to
about 800,000 barrels today that the
country can probably continue to op-erate
at that low level without U. S.
technicians," a petroleum analyst
said. Mortgage foreclosures on the rise in Columbia
By Lisa Barcbie
Missourian staff writer
James A. McKinney stood on the steps of
the Boone County Courthouse accepting bids
on the foreclosed property of the Route B In-vestment
Corp. A single bid of $ 36,110.39 was
placed by Boone County Bank and within two
minutes the auction was over.
This short, informal auction, conducted by
McKinney, trustee for the property and vice
president of loans at Boone County Bank, is
the last step in the foreclosure process. But
for the property owner the foreclosure proc-ess
is long and for the lending institutions it
is distasteful.
htctmii miumu, i, iinMimniinimmini
Foreclosures are increasing nationwide,
and in Columbia foreclosure activity is par-alleling
the national trend.
" We have foreclosed on six or seven prop-erties
in the last 18 to 24 months compared to
one in the last 15 to 20 years," says Les Proc-tor,
vice president of Boone County Bank, 720
E. Broadway.
The number of mortgage foreclosures has
increased nationally from .03 percent in the
second quarter of 1980 to .03 percent during
the same period in 1931, according to the Na-tional
Association of Mutual Savings Banks.
Statewide, the foreclosure rate is running
even higher because Missouri is affected by
the two- ye- ar slump in automobile manufac--
Insight
turing, a major factor in the state's econ-omy.
Burl Garrison, president of the Mort-gage
Bankers Association, says that
Missouri foreclosures have increased from
.05 percent at the end of 1980 to .07 percent in
January.
Most of Columbia's foreclosures involve
commercial properties. Proctor says all of
his foreclosures were on rental properties
with high vacancy rates and on construction- relate- d
loans. In those cases, the builders
could no longer afford to carry the construc
tion loans for completed but unsold houses.
For a builder, the cost of carrying a house
in inventory leaves him with little or no prof-it.
A builder who has financed $ 45,000 at 20
percent interest on a $ 60,000 house, would
pay, in six months, $ 4,500 plus expenses for
insurance, taxes and upkeep.
This cost and the decline in the market val-ue
of new homes has caused an increase in
construction- relate- d foreclosures at Com-merce
Bank of Columbia. Dan Scotten, pres-ident
of Commerce Bank of Columbia, 500
Business Loop 70 W., says this increase was
not as high as anticipated. " We were aware
that the situation was changing in the con-struction
industry and we slowed down our
volume of loans,' ' he says.
Homeowners are not immune to foreclo-sure
as household budgets become strained
by rising prices. Ralph Gates, vice president
of First National Bank and Trust Co., says
that since January his bank has foreclosed
on six rental and construction properties and
two single- famil- y homes. " The houses were
affordable but the owners overextended
themselves in other areas," Gates says.
Lending officials say the last thing they
want is the property.
Both Gates and Proctor advise property
owners having trouble making their pay- -
( See LAW, Page 7A)
' UIIHJimJlULMIIlMMHIIIIIIIHIHiilll 1,11111,111 !! llll ' I
Background -- JC
Business VVTX
Classified
Opinion v: 4C
Sports ?
Theater
Weather ZA
Inside
No small idea Speechless
Children will enjoy Our cover story in this
giving at Christmas week's Vibrations takes
more when they make you into the wordless
the gifts themselves. world of mime.
Our story on Page 1C of-fers
you ideas for a more
creative holiday.
f
Silence, please
Im town Efflieiy
I 2 pjo. " Babes in Toyland," Stephens As-- I
sembly Hall on the Stephens College campus.
Tickets are $ 5 and $ 4 for the general public,
$ 4 and $ 3 for students and senior citizens and
j $ 2 for children under 12. Tickets are avail-able
at the box office on Dorsey Street or by
calling 443- 343- 7.
3 p. m. " Christmas Prelude," with the Uni-versity
singers, Brass Choir and the Choral
Union at Jesse Auditorium on the University
campus. Free and open to the public.
7 p. m-- Oiristaasservice with the Stephens
Chamber Choir at the Firestone- Baar- s Cha-pel
on the Stephens College campus. Free
and open to the public.
In tewm MondLsw
7: 30 pan. Columbia Board of Education
meeting at 1818 W. Worley St. The meeting is
open to the public.
8 p. m. " Choral Concert," South Campus
Auditorium on. the Stephens College campus.
Free and open to the public.
i

74th Year No. 77 Good Morning! It's Sunday, December 13, 1981 5 Sections 56 Pages 50 Cents
WARSAW, Poland ( UPI) - Steel- helmet- ed
riot police carrying shields
moved in on the Solidarity Union's
Warsaw headquarters in a midnight
raid Saturday, took over the building
and arrested union officials there
and at their homes.
There were no immediate reports
of injuries, or whether Solidarity
leader Lech Walesa who was be-lieved
to be at a meeting of the union
leadership in Gdansk had been ar-rested.
The raid came within hours of the
union's call for a national day of pro-test
Thursday in the face of Soviet
warnings that the 10- milli- on member
union was " preparing for direct sei-zure
of power." Telephone commu-nications
between Warsaw, the rest
of Poland and the outside world were
cut about 4 pjn. CST Saturday. UPI
communications were transmitted
early today through the French news
agency Agence France- Press- e office
in Vienna.
Witnesses said 11 police vans car-rying
riot police blocked off
Mokotowska Street, where Solidarity
is located, about 5 p. m. CST, and po-lice
poured into the building from a
van that drove up to the door.
Officers with riot shields escorted
people from the building and drove
them away. One of those taken was
Krzystyof Sliwinski, head of Warsaw
Solidarity's Foreign department.
A woman watching the police
round- u- p said her son, union activist
Dariusz Kupiecki, had been arrested
at his home.
" I came to find out what hap- -
pened," she said, spitting on the
ground at the foot of a policeman.
The State Department in Washington
had no official comment on the raid
or subsequent arrests.
During a fiery debate between
moderates and radicals in the Soli-darity
leadership, one Solidarity of f '--
cial
said, " Whether we want to
not, we have to take power.
" We should do it quickly because
both for the party and for us, time
has become a political factor," said
Antoni Kopaszewski, a Solidarity of-ficial
from Rzeszow.
The government crackdown came
after the Solidarity union proclaimed
Thursday " a day of protest against
oppression and a symbol of social
unity" in a brief resolution adopted
by the union's 107- memb- er ruling
committee.
Communist officials vowed at the
same time that police would use
force to break up any demonstra-tions.
Hours later, communications
with outside countries were cut off
and the riot squads moved in on War-saw's
Solidarity headquarters.
Solidarity's national leadership,
meeting for the second day, also
passed a resolution threatening a
general strike if parliament ap-proves
a series of tough emergency
rule laws demanded by the Commu-nist
Party.
In Warsaw, Mayor Jerzy
Majewski demanded that Solidarity
call off planned mass demonstra-tions
set for Thursday and hinted the
government might use force to pre-vent
them.
Majewski said the street rallies
planned in Warsaw and other cities
would be like " putting a fuse to a
barrel of gunpowder" and warned
that " law enforcement organs will
oppose with determination any ac-tions
aimed against peoples' power."
In Moscow, the' Soviet news agen-cy
Tass said Solidarity was " prepar-ing
for direct seizure of power" and
a general strike aimed at paralyzing
the country and " overthrowing the
socialist system."
Despite a deep split between mod-erate
and militant factions in the
union's national commission, its
leadership did agree Saturday on the
centerpiece of the resolutions being
debated at the three- da- y meeting
a seven- poi- nt declaration of strateg-y-
The resolution included demands
for free elections, access to the mass
media, an end to reprisals against
the union, economic reforms, great-er
union control of the economy, a
new trade union law and the creation
of a council to oversee economic
matters.
It also included provisions for a 24- ho- ur
strike if parliament grants
emergency powers to the govern-ment
and an indefinite general strike
if such powers are used.
Another resolution debated by the
member union commission would
virtually reject the present regime.
" The public cannot tolerate au-thorities
which cannot guarantee the
basic needs of the people," the reso-lution
said.
IVAnn Lawrence
Saturday was overcast and chilly but not cold enough to keep
these horses inside their barn. Oblivious to the stark beauty of
their surroundings, they nibbled at dry late autumn grass in a
field at the corner of Green Meadows and Bethel Roads.
Suspect in three rapes defended
ByJeffTraesdell
Missourian staff writer
Neighbors of a man arrested and
charged Friday with three rapes
spent Saturday morning asking
themselves how police could have
compiled evidence condemning their
friend.
" We're shocked. He's about as
guilty as the Rev. Billy Graham,"
. said Larry McDaniel of Jim Aberna- th- y,
24, who was arrested and
charged with three rapes in the city
in the past four months. McDaniel
and his wife, Mary Kay, are Aberna- thy'- s
neighbors in the Columns IV
Mobile Home Community, U. S. 63
South, on the city's southeast side.
" I we're not over there, he's over
here, day in, day out, every day of
the year," McDaniel said. " There's
no way they can tell me I don't know
the guy.
" Here's what everybody's think-ing;
if the crooks don't get you, the
cops wilL If it can happen to Jim
Abernathy, it can happen to any-body."
Boone County Prosecutor Joe
Moseley Friday charged Abernathy
with the rapes and three counts each
of sodomy and burglary. If convicted
on the rape charges, Abernathy
could face three life terms in prison.
He was being held in Boone County
Jail in lieu of $ 600,000 bond following
arraignment Friday.
Abemathy's neighbors are con-fused
and angry over the fate of their
friend, a former instructor at Rock
Bridge and Hallsville high schools, a
University graduate student and the
former chairman of the mobile home
community's tenants association.
Friends who live near Abernathy
on the trailer park's South Drury
Drive refused to accept the idea that
Columbia police had built a case
against him.
" This block of people is like fami-ly,"
said Mary Kay McDaniel. " No-body
believes it."
Abemathy's neighbors, who plan
to help cover his legal expenses, ve-hemently
deny his guilt. Many, how-ever,
believe it's too late to correct
the damage already wrought by the
announcement of Abemathy's ar-rest.
" There's no way it can be this
man," says Ralph King, a real estate
agent and former superintendent of
the Hallsville school district, who
has been Abemathy's next door
neighbor for four years.
King, who earlier recommended
Abernathy to Hallsville school ad-ministrators,
said: " Somebody's
made a gross error. I certainly hope
that the police will continue their in-vestigation
because they have the
wrong person."
Residents have pieced together
( See FRIENDS, Page 7A)
Libya to replace
U. S technicians
leaving oilfields
From our wire services
Libyan Oil Minister Abdul Salaam
Zagaar said Saturday that Libya
may be forced to shut down its oil-fields
if the 1,500 Americans there
heed President Reagan's " unfair"
call for them to return home.
Speaking after a meeting of the Or-ganization
of Petroleum Exporting
Countries, which ended Friday in
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates,
Zagaar said Libya wanted the Amer-icans
in Iibya to remain but would
not stop them from leaving.
If the American tecnhicians run-ning
Libya's oilfields do leave, Za-gaar
said, then Libya will be forced
to seek qualified replacements
" from anywhere" it can get them.
" We are not compelling anyone to
leave," Zagaar said. " But if they
leave, then we will take the nec-essary
measures to protect our legit-imate
interests."
Meanwhile, analysts say that
OPEC's decision to lower its crude
oil prices indicated the cartel is con-fident
the confrontation between the
United States and Libya will not dis-rupt
world oil markets.
OPEC oil ministers turned down a
Libyan request for economic repri-sals
against the United States follow-ing
President Reagan's appeal to
Americans to leave Libya.
The cartel agreed to trim some of
its crude by between 20 and 70 cents
a barrel as of Jan. 1 the second se-ries
of official price reductions in
two months.
" OPEC's actions would seem to
imply that the U. S.- Liby- an facedown
isn't affecting OPEC pricing deliber-ations,"
said Al Silber, international
oil analyst at Dean Witter Reynolds
Inc.
" There is no feeling of scarcity or
pricing changes that we might ex-pect
if the Libyans were about to
stop producing or other OPEC mem-bers
were prepared to embargo the
United States in support of Libya,"
he said.
West European nations have op-posed
President Reagan's policy of
confrontation with Libya on grounds
that it could push Col. Moammar
Khadafy's regime into the Soviet
camp. Oil minister Zagaar's refer--
Libyan strongman Col.
Moammar Khadafy plans to
hold a news conference in Tri-poli
today, presumably to re-spond
to Reagan's call for
Americans to leave Libya and
to charges that Libya has sent
" hit squads" to kill Reagan
and other American officials. I
ence to going ' anywhere" to seek
technical help if the Americans
leave appeared to hint at this.
Zagaar said the loss of U. S. oil per- sonnelwo- uld
create severe problems
for Libya."'
"( The American oil companies)
are fully responsible for the damage
that will occur to the oilfields,', he
said.
Analysts, however, say that a deci-sion
by Libya to shut down its oil-fields
would not be catastrophic. But
the loss of Libyan production would
remove about 800,000 barrels a day
from the world market and nearly
erase the current surplus, setting the
stage for possible OPEC price in-creases,
the analysts said.
Industry observers emphasized,
however, that Reagan's directive
was aimed at pulling American citi-zens
out of Libya and did not call for
ending U. S. purchases of Libyan oil
or closing U. S. oil operations in the
radical Arab nation.
The withdrawal of U. S. oil person-nel
could temporarily reduce Libya's
oil output, they said, but U. S. oil
firms that have production- sharin- g
agreements with the Tripoli govern-ment
have indicated non- Americ- an
employees can man their Libyan op-erations.
Although Occidental Petroleum
Co., Marathon Oil Co., Conoco Inc.
and Amerada Hess Co. are prepar-ing
to send home U. S. personnel, the
companies have no plans to close
their Libyan oil operations.
" Libya's oil production has fallen
so sharply from 1.7 million barrels a
day at the beginning of this year to
about 800,000 barrels today that the
country can probably continue to op-erate
at that low level without U. S.
technicians," a petroleum analyst
said. Mortgage foreclosures on the rise in Columbia
By Lisa Barcbie
Missourian staff writer
James A. McKinney stood on the steps of
the Boone County Courthouse accepting bids
on the foreclosed property of the Route B In-vestment
Corp. A single bid of $ 36,110.39 was
placed by Boone County Bank and within two
minutes the auction was over.
This short, informal auction, conducted by
McKinney, trustee for the property and vice
president of loans at Boone County Bank, is
the last step in the foreclosure process. But
for the property owner the foreclosure proc-ess
is long and for the lending institutions it
is distasteful.
htctmii miumu, i, iinMimniinimmini
Foreclosures are increasing nationwide,
and in Columbia foreclosure activity is par-alleling
the national trend.
" We have foreclosed on six or seven prop-erties
in the last 18 to 24 months compared to
one in the last 15 to 20 years," says Les Proc-tor,
vice president of Boone County Bank, 720
E. Broadway.
The number of mortgage foreclosures has
increased nationally from .03 percent in the
second quarter of 1980 to .03 percent during
the same period in 1931, according to the Na-tional
Association of Mutual Savings Banks.
Statewide, the foreclosure rate is running
even higher because Missouri is affected by
the two- ye- ar slump in automobile manufac--
Insight
turing, a major factor in the state's econ-omy.
Burl Garrison, president of the Mort-gage
Bankers Association, says that
Missouri foreclosures have increased from
.05 percent at the end of 1980 to .07 percent in
January.
Most of Columbia's foreclosures involve
commercial properties. Proctor says all of
his foreclosures were on rental properties
with high vacancy rates and on construction- relate- d
loans. In those cases, the builders
could no longer afford to carry the construc
tion loans for completed but unsold houses.
For a builder, the cost of carrying a house
in inventory leaves him with little or no prof-it.
A builder who has financed $ 45,000 at 20
percent interest on a $ 60,000 house, would
pay, in six months, $ 4,500 plus expenses for
insurance, taxes and upkeep.
This cost and the decline in the market val-ue
of new homes has caused an increase in
construction- relate- d foreclosures at Com-merce
Bank of Columbia. Dan Scotten, pres-ident
of Commerce Bank of Columbia, 500
Business Loop 70 W., says this increase was
not as high as anticipated. " We were aware
that the situation was changing in the con-struction
industry and we slowed down our
volume of loans,' ' he says.
Homeowners are not immune to foreclo-sure
as household budgets become strained
by rising prices. Ralph Gates, vice president
of First National Bank and Trust Co., says
that since January his bank has foreclosed
on six rental and construction properties and
two single- famil- y homes. " The houses were
affordable but the owners overextended
themselves in other areas," Gates says.
Lending officials say the last thing they
want is the property.
Both Gates and Proctor advise property
owners having trouble making their pay- -
( See LAW, Page 7A)
' UIIHJimJlULMIIlMMHIIIIIIIHIHiilll 1,11111,111 !! llll ' I
Background -- JC
Business VVTX
Classified
Opinion v: 4C
Sports ?
Theater
Weather ZA
Inside
No small idea Speechless
Children will enjoy Our cover story in this
giving at Christmas week's Vibrations takes
more when they make you into the wordless
the gifts themselves. world of mime.
Our story on Page 1C of-fers
you ideas for a more
creative holiday.
f
Silence, please
Im town Efflieiy
I 2 pjo. " Babes in Toyland," Stephens As-- I
sembly Hall on the Stephens College campus.
Tickets are $ 5 and $ 4 for the general public,
$ 4 and $ 3 for students and senior citizens and
j $ 2 for children under 12. Tickets are avail-able
at the box office on Dorsey Street or by
calling 443- 343- 7.
3 p. m. " Christmas Prelude," with the Uni-versity
singers, Brass Choir and the Choral
Union at Jesse Auditorium on the University
campus. Free and open to the public.
7 p. m-- Oiristaasservice with the Stephens
Chamber Choir at the Firestone- Baar- s Cha-pel
on the Stephens College campus. Free
and open to the public.
In tewm MondLsw
7: 30 pan. Columbia Board of Education
meeting at 1818 W. Worley St. The meeting is
open to the public.
8 p. m. " Choral Concert," South Campus
Auditorium on. the Stephens College campus.
Free and open to the public.
i